The christmas that wasn't like anyone expected it to be
by Pearlislove
Summary: Normal AU. Emma and Jaocb has been dating for 2 years. At Christmas, six months after Jaocb introduced Emma to his family, he is set to be introduced to hers over Christmas. But does Jaocb really know what he signed up for? Will it be as embaressing as Emma think? Read to find out.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is a Normal AU, meaning that everyone is completely normaly. Emma's so called 'Family' is of course Miss P and the other Peculiar children (Minus Jacob). Miss Peregrine is in her fifties because she has to be some age no?**

"Emma?" Jake asked distractedly, not even glancing down at his girlfriend as he swiped with his thumb on the screen of his phone, exchanging the picture from said girlfriend's birthday for a holiday picture of their trip to his family home in Florida the summer before.

"Yes dear?" Emma wasn't really paying attention, either, lying flat on her stomach on the carpet and writing down a few answers to her English literature quiz the coming week. In her notebook for mathematics. She had lost her general notebook a few days prior and was yet to get a new one, writing down what needed to be remembered wherever she found the space. She'd regret it when exams came, she was sure, but for now she didn't particularly care.

"When will I get to meet your family?" Jake tried to keep his neutral tone, swiping on the screen and coming face to face with a selfie of him, Emma and one of his cousins, Danny. When they went on the vacation together last summer, Jake had taken the chance to introduce her to everyone in his family, including his two uncles and their five children. He didn't dare look her in the face as he voiced the question which he'd had in his mind for so long, but if he had, he would have seen her shock.

The question came as an absolute surprise to Emma, and yet, she couldn't help but feel as though she had seen it coming. Jake had brought her with him to his family home in Florida last June, and during their two week stay, Emma had come to meet practically everyone there was in his family. Since then, Emma had with nervous anticipation been expecting Jake to ask for the same in return, but since he never did, the question had long since been forgotten in her mind.

"Oh...um…" Quiz forgotten, Emma propped herself up on her elbows as she tried to think of a passable excuse. It wasn't that she disliked her family, or were ashamed of them, but she really had hope he'd not ask. For him, two uncles and five cousins validated a large family, and she wasn't sure how he'd take meeting a group of people that was twice as big and still was just the closest family." I guess sometime when we're all together, or at least as many as possible?"

Jake glanced at her suspiciously, obviously not quite happy with the answer, and she quickly tried to seem occupied with writing down the plot to Hamlet in the margin of an old Math assignment. She can, however, tell that Jake is still looking at her, contemplating something before letting out an audible sigh. "You know, I _did_ introduce you to _all of my family_ last summer. And we've been going steady two years! Don't you think it's time I get to meet your family? Like at least your mom and maybe some of your siblings?"

She hate it, the way he say it. He made it sound like a demand, something she had to do, and it tickles her fiery temperament. He didn't even know that much about her family, just that she and the majority of her siblings were adopted and she only had a mom and no dad, so how could he berate her for being cautious? Preferably, she'd like to tell him to him to fuck off if he thought he could pressure her into arranging for him to meet her family, but she hold herself back, instead choosing a more tactical but not less angry reply.

"Of course, _Jacob_! Why don't I just introduce you to everyone? I mean as your girlfriend I have to do that don't I?" The moment she start talking, he know he's stepped over some kind of line. She is using his full name, Jacob, which only his grandpa used, and her voice is dripping with sarcasm. Had he been anyone else she probably would have told him to fuck off already. "You can meet mom, and my seven siblings, and my sisters boyfriend, and my nine aunts, and my uncle and his girlfriend and their son...oh and why not my fifty or so cousins while we're at it?"

With that, Emma, slammed her book shut and stormed off, absolutely furious for reasons she could barely explain for herself, and sure as hell wasn't going to defend infront of Jake.

 **sssssss**

Watching her storm off after their short discussion, Jake wondered what he was to do. A part of him told him that he should be wondering what kind of relationship he was really involved in, considering she'd seen red as soon as he suggested being introduced to her family , but another part of his brain told him she was probably just scared. Introducing someone to your family can be sensitive, and considering that he knew she had been in a long, devoted relationship before dating him that had ended quite suddenly, he could understand her fear.

Turning off his phone and sitting up, Jake decided that the best thing to do was probably to give her some time and then follow, her much more serene mood that always followed every flash of anger offering the chance to talk it out like civil people.

Jake is about to go, figuring that he waited long enough, when he hears an unfamiliar ringtone starting to play, the sound of church bells echoing in the room until Jake finally spot Emma's phone abandoned on top of her stack of homework she'd abandoned as well.

Carefully, he lift up the phone, the screen lighting up as he touched it. He squinted at the slightly blurry picture of a woman in her early fifties with glasses and a hawk-like gaze that appeared along with the set name of the contact, 'Miss P/Mom', before slowly hitting the green button and putting it to his ear.

He didn't mean to intrude on her personal life, he really didn't, but she'd told him so very little about her family and history despite all the time they'd been together, and he longed to learn more. With his earlier plans of getting to know of the things she never told him in ruins, he decided this was his second chance.

"Hello, Emma's phone, Jacob speaking. How can I help you?" The well practiced sentence easily slide off his tongue, and for a moment it is absolutely silent on the other end, so to the point that he almost thought they'd hung up, before someone finally pick up.

"Hello, uh, Yakob was it? Is Emma there? I'd like to speak to her please." It's not a soft and motherly female voice, the kind he would have imagined belonged to 'Miss P/Mom', but instead it's cold and strict, and by some weird coincidence he can't help noting she pronounced his full name with the same kind of Polish accent as his grandfather.

"I'm afraid she left a minute ago. Can I take a message?" Jacob asked back awkwardly, suddenly feeling a bit scared, but forcing himself to sound relaxed.

"Certainly. Tell her that Miss Peregrine called, and that Sharon and the grannies are asking about Christmas plans, so I need her to call back so we can start planning something."

"O-of course." Even when terrified, her can feel his heart leaping with joy. He'd just had a conversation with her mother, or so her thought anyway, and he got to carry with him a very personal message that might just be his ticket to changing her mind so he could finally meeting her family. Then, in the end he took a big risk. "I'll tell my girlfriend to call you."

After Jake said the last part he couldn't hang up fast enough, pushing the red button repeatedly until finally the contact photo was framed by red, indicating he hung up, and he finally breathed out.

He knew the last part had been a bad idea, and Emma was most likely going to kill him for it later, even if she had told her family about him it shouldn't be a problem.

With a sigh, he grabbed Emma's backpack from the nightstand, adding her phone, her unfinished homework, her jacket and a few pieces of clothing from his drawer that was hers to it before closing it and swinging it over his shoulder, heading out to find his girlfriend who'd most definitely be returning to her own dorm for the night.

 **sssssss**

Emma felt like she was going to cry, no, breakdown sobbing. She had just stomped off out of her boyfriend's dorm without her jacket and backpack and homework in mid November and instead of continuing to feel pissed she'd succumbed to a big black cloud that had appeared in her stomach and was festering on her intense, making her feel so horribly vulnerable.

Where did you go when you felt like the entire world was caving in? When you couldn't take anything else? She couldn't return to her own dorm, she'd never make it across campus in the cold weather, but nor could she return and apologise.

What she really wanted to do was call Bronwyn, her strong and solid as rock younger sister who always knew what to say. She wanted to cry her heart out on the phone without telling her why and receiving comfort without questions in return, just like she'd done so many times during her first year, when she and Abe was. Of course she knew she'd have to explain herself to her mom later, but first she'd get questionless comfort.

Soon, she stack her hand into her pocket, feeling around for the fuzzy pink shell on her phone that two of her other sister, Claire and Olive, had given her for her birthday, but found nothing but a chocolate bar she had meant to eat when she finished her homework. With terror, she realised she forgot it in the dorm, and so she couldn't even call her sisters.

"Emma?" It take her about five seconds to realise that she must have been zoomed out rather long, because Jake is there, standing next to her with a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I...What are you doing with my backpack!?" As soon as she sees the familiar gray bag (Enoch bought it for her in her last year of high school, and she had been tactful enough not to comment the colour of the actually quite expensive bag), she wrench it out of his hands and keep it against her chest protectively. "It's mine!"

"I know!" He's holding up his hands in defense, want to show he mean no harm. "I packed everything in there, including some of your clothes. Thought you might want to go back to you dorm tonight."

Emma feel herself go cold. Jake didn't even want her to stay in his dorm anymore, just because she had been uncertain about introducing him to her family.

"Are you crazy? Is this whole family thing seriously so important I can't stay with you until i say yes?!" She is yelling, she know, but he's being unreasonable and somehow she needed an outlet for all the pent up frustration over her sudden vulnerable state, and screaming was perfect for all that.

"No! I thought you'd be so mad at me that you didn't want to stay!" Jake yelled back, before stopping himself. Screaming never took them anywhere, and would only serve to further ignite Emma's flaming temper, so instead, he spoke quietly. "I'm sorry, okay? You can always stay if you want to."

As soon as he said 'I'm sorry', it all felt better to Emma,and she smiled thankfully. Over the course of the last two years, she'd started countless argument with Jake, but in the end it had always been Jake who had apologised, even when it was her fault, because he recognised that even when she wanted to, she could never be the first to admit a mistake. "I'm sorry, too, Jake. I shouldn't have been so sensitive about the family thing." Quickly, she closed the distance between them and hugged him. "I would love to introduce you sometime."

Jake smiled, hugging Emma back tightly. He had an idea, and right now he was brave enough to suggest it. "Well, your mom wanted you to call her to plan Christmas. Apparently someone called Sharon was asking. Maybe you could tell her I'm coming with you?" He knows he has to tread carefully, because they have only just reconciled, and he doesn't want her to feel like he's pressuring her into anything. But the truth was that he really wanted to do this, though, and he wanted Emma to trust him enough to introduce him to her family on Christmas. He had worked so hard to tear down all the walls she built around herself, and this, this would be the top of his work.

"Wait, you spoke to mom? Oh bird...and Sharon, why would he be calling already? He never plan in advance...maybe his girlfriend told him… Dear bird it's only a month away and I haven't planned anything!" Emma didn't know what to do, now. Jake had spoken to her mom and her mom wanted to talk about Christmas plans and Christmas was only a month away and it was so many things she'd need to fix before that especially if she was going to introduce Jake and she could just feel the pressure and panic hitting her like a hammer in the head. She had never been good at handling stress and right now her stress level was shooting through the roof.

Seeing the panic in her eyes and hearing her rambled speech, Jake instinctively pulled his girlfriend closer to him and tried to calm her down. "Sch, it's going to be alright Emma. There's still a whole month left. Your mom would have called earlier if she thought there was any rush." Softly stroking Emma's hair as he kept her against his chest, Jake couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. He hadn't meant to send his girlfriend into a panic, he truly hadn't, but it wasn't like he could have gone without telling her about the phone call, and he had needed to give her his suggestion before he chickened out out of fear for her temper. "Why don't you just call your mom and the two you can start planning, and then you don't have to feel stressed at all."

Emma looked up at him, feeling much calmer than she had a moment ago. Jake was a great comforter, and she loved the way he delicately stroke her hair, careful as though he was afraid to move a single strand of hair as much as a centimeter to the side. he, she suddenly decided, definitely had to come with her home for Christmas. Sure a month was a little bit short of time to prepare, she would have preferred something more akin to six months, but it would have to do. "Yes, I'm going to do that. I'm going to call mom and arrange everything. A month is quite short of time to prepare you, though, but I guess it'll have to do. Hope your a quick learner."

Quickly, focused, she detangled herself from her boyfriend's grip and picked up her bad that she dropped on the ground. It only took a quick search of the outer compartments and she quickly found her phone with the fluffy pink shell, turning on and seeing that she still had over half the battery left. When she went into the activity log, she could see the received call from Miss Peregrine at the top of the list. It was only a little under four minutes and she relaxed seeing that her mom couldn't have had time to say much more than leaving a message for Emma.

When she turned back to Jake after closing her bag and slinging it over her shoulder, she could see that he stood exactly where she left him with an utterly confused expression on his face. She couldn't help but giggle, hiding her mad grin behind her hand.

"I have to learn something?" He asked, surprised and more than a little confused as Emma giggled behind her hand. What could it possibly be that he needed to _learn_ about her family? Names?

"Well, yes. So you don't make mistakes. For example, I am the only one in front of who you can refer to Miss Peregrine as 'your mother'. Everyone call her Miss Peregrine, always, or possibly Miss P." She said seriously before picking up the phone and clicking the green call button, putting it to her ear.

Jake followed behind her obediently, reentering the dormitory and considering what was going to happen now.

Somehow, he felt like he had _no idea_ what he just signed up for…


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Okay seeing as there a lot of confusion form the last chapter, here is soem explanations and reminders:**

 **This is a normal AU, everyone is absolutely normal, and Emma's family isi the Peculiar children and Miss P**

 **Miss Peregrine and all other characters appearances is based on the book, which means that Miss Peregrine is in her fifties, and Polish becaus eof reasons explained later.**

*riiing*

Alma LeFay Peregrine had just started preparing for cooking dinner for her rather large family, bustling around in the kitchen and bringing forth the necessary items and cutlery, when the phone started ringing.

Her earlier thoughts on what set of plates to have the children set the table with that day in particularly quickly left her mind, and she immediately moved the few meters from the cabinet to the countertop, setting down the blue glass bowl she was balancing on her left arm before reaching out to grab the red stationary phone from it's place on the wall. Whoever was calling obviously knew her well, well enough to know that she hated dealing with that wicked thing called a smartphone, which was resting on the counter next to the glass bowl and charging. Some might call her old fashioned, but her personal opinion was that it was complicated and inconvenient ninety percent of the time, and the only time she really used it was when she was not at home, or someone thought themselves smart to call her on it.

Another calling from the phone in her hand, and she remembered what she was doing, quickly putting it to her ear.

"Hello, Alma Peregrine speaking." She said politely, waiting for an answer and wondering who might be calling.

"Hi, mom, it's Emma." A childish female voice soon answered on the other end, and Alma smiled, happy to hear her daughter's voice for the first time in quite some time. The girl had been busy with school, she knew that, and Alma hadn't felt like she wanted to trouble her. She could go a few weeks without checking her daughter was still alive, unlike some parents who didn't trust their children's abilities quite as much.

"Oh, Emma, how wonderful to hear from you. I suppose you got my message and is calling about christmas?" To be honest, she had more or less forgotten that she called Emma earlier that day, but now that she was standing there with the phone it was all coming back to her.

She had been out running some errands, including buying a few Christmas gifts for some of her children, and had by accident run into her brother Sharon, who had asked her about Christmas plans. She hadn't made any yet, and told him as much, but promised to contact him soon. Knowing the plans more or less stood and fell with Emma, she had immediately decided she needed to call her, which she had once she settled herself in a cafe for a well-deserved break.

With some difficulty, she had managed to call Emma on the smartphone, and after a rather long period of waiting for someone to answer, she had finally heard a click on the other line, but instead of her little girl's sweet voice, a male voice had started talking instead. The boy, unfamiliar to her, had called himself Jacob, and after some back and forth she had made him take a message for Emma, which she supposed she must have gotten since she was calling back now.

"Oh, yes, Jake told me Sharon had been asking. Anyway, I was thinking if we arrived on the twenty-third, and then stayed until the twenty-seventh, would that be good?" Emma lazily confirmed her question, before hurriedly laying out her suggestion for approval. She had never had much patience, and prefered to get things over and done with instead of drawn out conversations.

"Yes, it will be alright. Are you bringing someone?" Alma hadn't missed Emma saying 'we' instead of 'I' and Alma figured she had been meaning to mention that she was bringing someone, too.

"Perfect! And...uh...yes on the question. I'm bringing my boyfriend, Jacob." Emma sounded flustered and embarrassed as she admitted that she was bringing her boyfriend, and Alma wondered why, but refrained from commenting on it.

"Excellent. As it look at the moment, it will be me, all your siblings, Hugh, Sharon with his family, some of my sisters with their babies, and of course your grannies. But not Miss Finch, sadly. She have to be with her aunt you know. She was hoping to join us for the twenty-fifth, though, because her cousin will be filling in with their aunt." She explained, knowing that Emma would want a list of participants if she was to bring her boyfriend to the gathering.

"Great, thanks mom. Can me and Jake stay at the house while we're in town, or will you have full house?" Emma asked, once again sounding a bit embarrassed , and Alma almost chewed her out. Of course she would have room for her daughter and her boyfriend to stay in her house.

"But of course! We'll put an extra bed in your room, like we do when Fe got Hugh with her." Alma answered, almost scandalized. Despite the fact that Emma, much like her big sister Fiona, didn't live in the house anymore, her room stayed her room and it was still hers to occupy whenever she decided to come back home. Alma couldn't imagine having it any other way. They had plenty of guest rooms, still, so it really was no issue.

"That'll be perfect, mom. Thanks. Love you!" The clock went off on the other end, and Alma knew Emma had hung up. Still, she smiled. She had a feeling this Christmas was going to be very special.


	3. Chapter 3

"Okay, I'm done with fixing it. We'll be there from the 23rd to the 27th, my mom will out in an extra bed in my old room for you to sleep on. Sounds good?"

"Sounds perfect." Jake smiled. Four days, almost an entire week, with her family, and spending the nights sharing a bed with Emma. He couldn't ask for anything else.

"You've never been to Wales, have you? Bet you'll love Cairnholm. " Emma smiled, too, as she sat down beside her boyfriend on the carpet, her bag landing heavily beside her.

"Uh, no I haven't. Is there a ferry out to the Island, or how do you get there?" Jake hadn't even thought of the fact that her family lived on an island in Wales, but now that she commented on it, he did remember having been told about it sometime. The thought of going to Wales for Christmas _and_ meeting her family made him suddenly even more excited than before.

It was going to be an absolutely amazing christmas.

"Yep. Take an hour there, and an hour back. Goes three times a day. Anyway, your really lucky because mom told me it'll be a full house. Basically, you're meeting everyone. From some of my aunts to my uncle, my siblings, my grannies and at least a few of my cousins."

Emma was really warming up to the idea of introducing Jake, now, and the earlier despair had been replaced by something akin to excitement. She couldn't remember why she had been so desperate at first, but she had, and now, she was sitting on the other side of the spectra. She felt a little cross with herself for being so moody, and for putting Jake through the hole fight only to join his side when it was over, but she knew there was nothing to do about anything.

"Uh, well, that sound good, even if I don't know who any of those people are…" Jake smiled awkwardly, sharing Emma's excitement but feeling a little out of place, because Emma was speaking of places he'd never been and family he'd never met.

"Which take us to the next thing." Emma said seriously, picking out a pen and a piece of paper from her bag. "The family chart, the basic not at all easy introduction to my family."

Jake watched with interest as Emma started out by drawing a large circle with a black marker in the middle, filling out the name 'Miss peregrine' inside it, before grabbing a blue pen, dragging a line downwards and making a second bubble in which she wrote 'Me and my siblings (7)', and 'adopted' on top of the blue line connecting it to the first bubble.

"My mom, or well my adopted mom, is Alma LeFay Peregrine. I call her mom when we're alone, but everyone else call her 'Miss P' or 'Miss Peregrine'. She has adopted me and my seven siblings, whose names we'll go over later." Emma explained, continuing by grabbing a purple marker and making a purple bubble connected to the blue one representing her and her siblings. Inside it, she used the black marker to write 'Hugh - Sisters boyfriend'. "My oldest sister Fiona is dating a boy named Hugh since a couple of years, and she'll definitely be bringing him home for the holidays, so I guess that means you won't be the only boyfriend."

"Sounds nice." Jake smiled, imagining befriending a boy a few years his senior who knew how it felt to be new to the entire thing and showed him around and protected him.

After explaining the last part, Emma once more picked up the blue marker, drawing a blue bubble over Miss Peregrine's, making a blue line connecting the two, and scribbling 'adopted' with a black marker on the line before filling up the empty bubble with 'The Grannies'.

"I got four grannies, Miss Avocet, Wren, Buntings and Finch. They adopted my mom and" She grabbed the pen and added another blue bubble connected to the one that said 'The grannies', filling it out with 'my aunts (7)'. "My seven aunts, raising them in a house where Miss Avocet and Miss Buntings lived with them permanently. Is guess Miss Wren and Finch were more like aunts that came to visit a lot, but mom refers to them as her mothers when they're not around. When they're here, we mostly call the grannies." After she finished that particularly long explanation, she paused for a while, trying to catch her breath.

"You sure have a big family…" Jake commented in awe, glancing down at the paper and the colourful bubbles drawn on it. The size of his girlfriend's family had been hinted at before, but first now did he realise what it meant.

"Oh, we're not done. Not at all. Next, we got my uncle, Sharon, who I think you already heard about." Emma quickly grabbed another marker, a green one, and drew a new bubble that she connected to the black 'Miss Peregrine' bubble. In it she wrote out 'Sharon' and 'Mom's brother/uncle'. She also grabbed a blue one to connect the bubble for her aunts to the one for her mother. "He got a girlfriend, a woman Sasha Dust, and they got a son, Ronaldo." Once more taking a small break she made sure to add a bubble for 'Madame Dust', and one for 'Ronaldo', both of which connected to 'Sharon'.

"Is he adopted sibling, like your aunt, or blood-relative?" Jake asked curiously. It was a lot to take in, this entire complicated family relationship, but he thought he was starting to get the hang of it.

"Blood related, He's…" Emma faltered for a moment, seemingly debated if she should say what she was about to, before shaking her head. "Nothing. Now, there's really only one group left. My cousins."

"Are they better than mine?" He smiled, knowing how well Emma had gotten along with his cousins, and feeling like teasing her over her own. Emma just rolled her eyes, drawing out a half-blue, half-read bubble and writing 'My cousins' inside.

"There's more of them. My mom's sisters are like rabbits. Either they're carrying or adopting, never get enough. Probably are sixty or seventy of them in total." She grinned. "Don't worry though, I really don't believe they'll be dragging them alone. Most likely just the youngest ones that they don't trust to stay at home. Somewhere between two and five for everyone, usually."

"Still, that's a whole litter is it not?" Jake asked, just a little baffled. Seventy to eighty cousins, with seven aunts beside her uncle Sharon, would mean ten or more children per woman. He had never heard of such big families, and the possibility was so baffling it almost made him feel a bit ill.

"Well I guess so." Emma knew she had many cousins, but with seven aunts, four grannies, and seven siblings of her own, it didn't feel that odd. Her uncle Sharon, how only had on child, was the one who was considered the odd one out. Jake was making her feel odd, peculiare even, and she didn't like it one bit.. "But since I got seven siblings, too, and seven aunts and four grannies, it doesn't really feel odd at all."

Jake could see his girlfriend was unhappy and uncomfortable with having so much attention put on how big her family was, so he quickly changed tracks. "Hey, is your mother...I mean, Miss Peregrine, from Britain originally? It's just when we talked on the phone she said my name and she sounded like my grandpa, it was the same Polish accent. Jacob became Yakob." He tried his best to imitate his grandpa's accent, remembering the conversation and his own slight surprise at the way she pronounced it. He had never heard anyone else saying hi name like that before.

"Well, no. She's Polish, too. That was what your grandpa was, wasn't it? Most of Miss P's sisters are from Great Britain, though, but I think Miss Treecreeper is French originally, and Miss Glassbillow speak german." Emma was thankful for the change of subject, even if she wasn't sure if the new subject was better than the old one or not. It wasn't that she didn't wish to know more about her aunts and mother, or that she hadn't tried asking, but they were all like clams. The more you tried to make them open up, the tighter they closed. "But really, I think we should move on to the names of my siblings. How do you like that suggestion?" It was a change of subject, again, and it was most likely only temporary, but Emma went for it. She wasn't going to let herself be more exposed than she already was.

Jake quickly shock his head, yawning. Just learning what he had already had been every bit as exhausting as the most exhausting day he could remember experiencing yet, and basically the only thing he wanted now was to sleep. "No thanks, I think my brain is going to explode if I try learning anything else. Another time maybe?"

Emma nodded, cuddling closer to Jake and smiling as his arm closed around her. "Another time. We got an entire month anyway."

 _An entire month_

When Emma said it she made it sound so long, but Jake knew it wasn't, and that made him smile more than anything. It had been such a long day, and after everything they had gone through it was such a good feeling to know that he had won. To know that he had teared down some of the thickest walls that his girlfriend had built up around her, and will get to meet her family soon. It was everything he ever wished for.


End file.
